CBS today announced a five year agreement with Stephen Colbert, the host, writer and executive producer of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning The Colbert Report, as successor of 21-year veteran host David Letterman upon his retirement from The Late Show, an event that has been teased comically for quite some time, but made official by Letterman's announcement during his April 3rd broadcast.

Colbert has signed a five-year agreement with CBS for The Late Show according to Leslie Moonves, President and CEO, CBS Corporation, and Nina Tassler, Chairman of CBS Entertainment.

"Stephen Colbert is one of the most inventive and respected forces on television," said Moonves. "David Letterman's legacy and accomplishments are an incredible source of pride for all of us here, and today's announcement speaks to our commitment of upholding what he established for CBS in late night."

Adds Tassler, "Stephen blazes a trail of thought-provoking conversation, humor and innovation with everything he touches ... his accomplishments [span] a wide spectrum of entertainment, politics, publishing and music."

"I'm thrilled and grateful that CBS chose me," says Colbert. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go grind a gap in my front teeth," he adds with his characteristic gleeful verbal panache.

Since its launch on Comedy Central in 2005, The Colbert Report, for which Colbert changed his on-air sir name from Col-bert to Col-bear so the show would be pronounced,'The Colbear Rapport,' has received widespread critical acclaim while earning two Peabody Awards and 27 Emmy nominations. Prior to that, Colbert spent eight years as a correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show as an on-air personality and writer of news satire for the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning series.